Oyo APC, INEC trade words over voter cards

The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Oyo State has criticised the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the alleged poor handling of issuance of Permanent Voter Cards (PVC) in the state.

It said many voters were unable to collect their PVCs in some local governments and that many new qualified adults were also not sure of collecting theirs before the February election.

The party’s Director of Publicity and Strategy, Olawale Sadare, said in a statement in Ibadan yesterday that INEC must be ready to convince the electorate that they would not be disenfranchised when voting begins in 2015.

The statement reads: “Less than 60 days to the presidential election, there are many eligible and willing voters out there whose fate are still hanging in the balance due to their inability to get the PVCs.

“A good number of citizens who registered and voted in 2011 have had their names removed without tenable reasons.

“Most people in Afijio, Ibadan South West, Ogbomoso North, Ibadan North East, Egbeda and many other council areas were made to re-register but up till now, nobody is sure when they would have their PVCs released. Besides, many people who are to be registered afresh have been abandoned by INEC.”

The party also expressed worry that voters who want to transfer their data to a new location are unable to do so.

But the Resident Electoral Commissioner, Nasiru Ayilara, denied sloppiness in the conduct of the exercise, saying that those who complained were the people who wanted to collect on others’ behalf.

His words: “As far as I am concerned, transfer of data to new location is done at the state headquarters and that exercise is going on smoothly.

“We have covered at least 60 per cent of PVC distribution and we don’t have new challenges. There are people who claimed to represent some others who are sick or have travelled but we have told them that there will be no collection by proxy.”